Modulation of CS-Associability in Discrimination Learning

关联性在当前的大多数联想学习理论中扮演着核心角色，指的是刺激的联想属性可以因经验而轻易改变的程度。在资金的第一阶段，我们调查了刺激的关联性是否被编码为特定于背景的。此外，我们还考察了关联性的变化是否会导致持之以恒和习得的无关性。持之以恒指的是根据属于先前相关维度的刺激来定向反应的倾向。习得性无关性指的是忽视来自先前无关维度的刺激的倾向。通过我们到目前为止的工作，我们能够证明刺激的关联性可以被伴随它的刺激所调节。此外，我们发现有证据表明，尤其是坚持性的影响取决于先前相关维度的训练量。目前，还没有一个学习理论能够解释我们从第一个资助期开始的结果。第二个资助期旨在具体说明我们迄今工作的理论影响。为此，我们想要更详细地研究在什么条件下刺激的关联性受到语境刺激的控制。此外，我们还想进一步研究我们的假设，特别是坚持的影响取决于先前相关维度的训练量。此外，我们想要检验关联性的变化是由刺激相关性还是由刺激-结果相关性引导的。我们预期的发现将强烈建议修改非常有影响力的联想学习理论。

Associability plays a central role in most current theories of associative learning and refers to the ease with which the associative property of a stimulus can be altered due to experience. During the first period of funding, we investigated whether the associability of a stimulus is encoded context-specific. In addition, we examined whether changes in associability lead to perseveration and learned irrelevance. Perseveration refers to a tendency to orientate responding according to stimuli belonging to a previously relevant dimension. Learned Irrelevance refers to a tendency to ignore stimuli from a previously irrelevant dimension.Through our work so far, we were able to demonstrate that the associability of a stimulus can be modulated by the stimuli that accompany it. In addition, we found evidence that especially the impact of perseveration depends on the amount of training of the previously relevant dimension. At present, there exists no learning theory which is able to explain our results from the first funding period. The second funding period aims at specifying the theoretical implications of our work to date. For this purpose, we want to investigate in more detail under which conditions the associability of a stimulus comes under the control of contextual stimuli. In addition, we want to further investigate our hypothesis that especially the impact of perseveration depends on the amount of training of the previously relevant dimension. Moreover, we want to examine whether changes in associability are guided by stimulus relevance or by stimulus-outcome correlations. Our expected findings would strongly advise to a modification of very influential theories of associative learning.